Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 1: Attleboro Origins, 1924

Attleboro, chief jewelry manufacturing centre in the United States, is a culmination of the proofs of a continuous expression of the industrial spirit and purpose of the Old Colony, as well as a remarkable demonstration of present-day specialization in manufacturing. It has two engrossing chapters in its life - that of its origins, nearly co-existent with the beginnings of New England; and the story of today, a continuous one in the industrial realm. Were we to begin the historical narrative of Attleboro with reference to that unknown Frenchman who in 1780 began to manufacture jewelry in this town, and so continue through increasingly abundant and absorbing chapters of the growth of jewelry-making, we should present the account of the life and times of Attleboro as most people know them. But it would still be in order to find and follow the original, the fleeting paragraphs, that lead us up to this present, in order that the old Attleboro and the new be united in the sequences of the story. Busy and active a world as it is, there are exceedingly few men, after all, who disregard their own ancestry, humble though the start may have been; and there are but few who confess to no interest in the recital of successive foundations. There should be fewer still who are willing to lose sight of the recollection of the twinkling lights of the first wilderness and village homes of Attleboro, from whose hearths were lighted the fires of the city's energies. Let us look back unto the thresholds and rebuild the lost rooftrees.

Three men distinguished in their pioneer age above others, and respectfully regarded today, had to do with making sure of the provision for the settlement of the lands whereon Attleboro town must one day arise. Those men were Captain Thomas Willett, friend of red man and white, purchaser of territory for the future settlement, and first English mayor of New York; William Blackstone, first of all white settlers in Boston (then Shawmut), and earliest householder within the ancient limits of Attleboro; and John Woodcock, first to set up his home and tavern within the bounds of the present Attleboro. Because of their activities in their unpopulous but eventful day, room was to be made for settlers from adjoining towns and from overseas who should later themselves give way to representatives of many other races, and in this New England hamlet and city illustrate again the world-old way of the incessant ebb and flow of the tides of humanity - movements that we style those of old and new régimes, that have always provided causes for jealousies and conflicts, but that are as natural as the tides and the seasons. Of these three men there shall be a later detailed account as to their personality and influence; they introduce for us our narrative, but-to appear again - as for the present we are to reckon with the reports of the beginning and progress of the town building. The story of the town of Rehoboth is woven in with that of the beginnings of Attleboro, and Rehoboth made its own generous contribution of families to this settlement, but in its own place in these volumes is to be told Rehoboth's story.

April 1, 1661, then, is a date that the Attleboro of today may well memorize for the event that it marks, and for what it means to all the industry of this hour. It indicates the day of the passing of a very old heritage of Indian proprietors into the hands of a white man who in his turn should pass it on to other groups of purchasers, founders of many families of the present. And this was only forty-one years after the arrival of the "Mayflower," whose passengers were to found the Old Colony of which this purchase was a part, and only twenty-four years after the purchase of the present Taunton was made of the Indians. These lands were those of Wamsutta, whose acquaintance we have made in the course of the narrative on the Indian wars, and in the transactions of the Freemen's purchase - that Wamsutta called Alexander by the English, and of whose father Massasoit nothing evil was ever written. There was neither seizure nor misrepresentation in the land negotiations here, Plymouth Court being the go-between for the Indian owners, the promulgated law of 1643 against independent and indiscriminate buying of property performing justly in behalf both of the natives and the purchasers.

"Rehoboth North Purchase." - By this title we shall ever know our newly acquired lands in their primitive times of the wide boundaries, the tract limit on its west being the present Blackstone river, on its north the "Bay Line'; on its east the present Mansfield, Norton and Easton; south, the present Attleboro, Seekonk, Pawtucket and East Providence; and the purchase was inclusive of Attleboro, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and a tract a mile and a half wide, extending east and west, and part of Wrentham and Foxboro. The mile and a half tract was given to Rehoboth, but in 1710 was restored to Attleboro.

And in this purchase, too, as we read over the old deed, we note the statement of the reservation made by the Indians - 'reserving only a competent portion for some of the natives to. plant and sojourn upon'' - again a refutation of unwarranted statements of some writers to the effect that the first comers took by force all lands from the red man proprietors. For a period of five years, 1661 to 1666, the title of all this property remained in the name of one man, Captain Thomas Willett, though he had purchased at the solicitation of many. On April 10 of 1666, he conveyed the purchase to the representatives of the Plymouth Colony government, who in turn on that day conveyed it to settlers in Rehoboth and neighboring places, who held £50 estates and more. When in 1672, three years before King Philip's war, a full list of the proprietors was made, that list showed eightytwo owners, and the number of shares as eighty and one-half. These proprietors were very methodical and explicit in the keeping of their land accounts, a number of their carefully prepared ledgers with pigskin covers, as well as those of the Taunton North Purchase, being preserved as relics. It was a unique organization, that of those old proprietors; they held the interesting position in those days of a separate body from that of the town corporation, and, as stated, they kept books of their own. They chose their own clerks, standing committees and surveyors, and at times looked after the bounds of the purchase and made strenuous effort to secure them. They laid out many needed highways for the town, and ordered that all timber

A power within itself was the proprietorship, the last of whose records having to do with the laying out of lands is of March 15, 1839. Their books began in 1672, the Rehoboth town books having contained any previous record relating to overtures for their transactions. They transacted all their own laws relating to the ownership, and gave their own titles to lands. Neither were they an exclusive autocracy other than the primitive situation warranted, as at first their lands were exempted from taxation "to accommodate the poorer sort with lands, and yet so as not to oppress them as much as otherwise." 'These were their clerks from the beginning: William Carpenter, Jr., chosen May 17, 1682; Daniel Smith, May 31, 1703; Noah Carpenter, April 23, 1724; John Robbins, Jr., May 1, 1752; John Daggett, December 9, 1763; Ebenezer Daggett, July 1, 1793; and Lucas Daggett, last of the clerks of the proprietary, March 15, 1839.

Contrary to the known facts with regard to many of the transactions in land hereabouts, we do not know what sum of money or commodities were paid to the Indian sachem, but the deed assures us that "divers good causes and valuable considerations" were in the exchange. And it is worth repeating that the best, the most practical and enduring currency from the standpoint both of the natives and the newcomers was garden seed, garden tools, cutlery, clothing, and even beads for ornaments. If in our luxurious days we demur at this, let us put ourselves in seventeenth century conditions in that wilderness by means of old records and the various viewpoints of the bookmen.

These "north-purchased" lands may be properly styled as at first a plantation of Rehoboth, and even up to the date of the incorporation in 1694, a portion of Rehoboth's meadow lands. Rehoboth townsmen fathered the motive and the settlement of the section to no minor degree. Yet the chartered limits of Rehoboth were never inclusive of those of the "north purchased" properties, as Hon. John Daggett, thoroughgoing historian, has demonstrated from his close study of the first proceedings of Rehoboth, whose survey is open to all future historians. Though the purchase originated to a very great extent in Rehoboth, and though even a division of a part of those north lands had been made by Rehoboth men June 22, 1658, three years before Willett had bought of Wamsutta, by approval of the Plymouth Court, and for grazing purposes for their cattle, yet the North Rehoboth Purchase was then considered a separate settlement under Rehoboth jurisdiction, until the incorporation of Attleboro; and up to then the inhabitants north were subject to the town government of Rehoboth. Again, while lots were drawn for the meadows north that have just been referred to as having been granted by the court previous to the purchase (May 26, 1668), the first division of general lands was made February 9, 1668, and lots were drawn for this division March 18 that year.

A town meeting was held that day, March 18, when it was voted that there should be fifty acres of land laid out to a share on the north purchased lands; that the purchasers should draw lots for their choice; that each one should choose his lands successively according to his turn, and give notice to the next in turn, and that if any neglected or refused to make choice and lay out his land in his turn for the space of three days after notice given him, he should wait until others had made choice in regular order. Such was the care accorded the transaction. And it was on this same day that a committee of eight were chosen "any two of whom might act, to see that these rights should not be laid out as to interfere with highways, previous divisions of meadows, or other lotments,' the committee consisting of William Sabin, Nicholas Peck, Samuel Newman, James Reddeway, Thomas Willmott, Samuel Peck, Lieutenant Hunt, Joseph Buckland. The following-named nine purchasers entered their protest against the manner of laying out of the lands by choosing, namely: Capt. Willett, Mr. Myles, Will. Sabin, Mr. Brown, Dea. Cooper, John Miller, Sr., John Peren, Sr., George Kendricke, Will. Carpenter. And these drew for a division on that day: John Titus, Joseph Buckland, John Ormsby, Lands of Children of Alexander Winchester, deceased, Nathl. Paine, Goody Hide, Rice Leonard, John Allin, Jr., Nicholas Peck, Ichabod Miller, Jr.,. Robert Wheaton, John Doggett, Deacon Cooper, Philip Walker, Tho. Read, Joseph Peck, John Read, Sr., Jonathan Bliss, Roger Amidowne, Stephen Paine, Jr., Thomas and Jacob Ormsby, Richard Bullock, Daniel Smith, John Kingsley, Obadiah Bowing, John :Peren, Sr., Robert Jones, Will. Buckland, James Gillson, Israil Peck, Anth. Perry, Eldad Kingsley, Tho. Cooper, Jr., Mr. Myles, Richard Bemies, Jr., John Fitch, Joseph Carpenter, Preserved Abel, John Woodcock, John Allen, Sr., Nich. Ide, Capt. Willet, James Reddeway, Sam. Newman, Stephen Paine, Sr., Jona. Palmer, Robert Miller, Tho. Willmot, Gilbert Brooks, Wid. Carpenter, Left. Hunt, Jaret Ingraham, Francis Stephens, John Read, Jr., Mr. Newman, Rich. Martin, John Butterworth, George Kendrick, John Lowell, Thomas Grant, Mr. Brown, Nath. Peck, George Robinson, Jonathan Fuller, Jonathan Bosworth, Sam. Peck, Robert Fuller, Nath. Paine, Jr., Richard Whittaker, Sam. Carpenter, Edward Hall, Nicholas Tanner, John Savage, Will Saben, Will Carpenter, Sampson Mason, John Peck, Ben Buckland, Hen. Smith, Sam. Luther.

Frequent complaints were made, however, concerning the divisions of the lands and the boundaries, as well-as with regard to the assessments, but eventually the boundaries matter was decided, October 31, 1699, when it was voted that there should be two divisions of lands in the North Purchase forthwith laid out to the said proprietors according to their rights | in said lands, "namely, twenty-five acres to the first division, and twentyfive acres to-the second division; and he that is first in the first division shall be last in the second division, and so on"; and when at their meeting of November 7, 1699, the proprietors drew lots for their new division, they had increased to one hundred and thirty-three in number.

The date of the incorporation of the town of Attleboro is October 19, 1694, when the population of the place was about 180, the families being pretty well scattered throughout the territory. As in the similar case of the naming of Taunton from the mother-town of Taunton, England, whence had come John and Walter Deane, first settlers, in like manner was Attleboro named - John Sutton and his family, and Thomas Daggett, among the first settlers here, having originated in Attleborough, Norfolk county, England, their voice evidently having been a prevailing one in the naming. Then, two years afterwards, came the town meetings, when popular influ-

The first record that we possess of a town meeting here is that of date May 11, 1696, when John Woodcock and John Rogers were appointed to supervise matters concerning the mile and a half part of the township to the north, and when Israel Woodcock, Thos. Tingley and Samuel Titus were appointed assessors for the ensuing year. It is probable that a town meeting preceded this one, but we have no statement of it from any source. But within the year (November 23, 1696) another town meeting was held, when we first hear of a concerted movement of the townsmen towards erecting a church building, the following-named six men agreeing to pay £4, 20s. as a "free gift towards the building of a meetinghouse"' - John Woodcock, John Lane, Israel Woodcock, Thomas Woodcock, George Robinson, David Freeman. 'The town debt at this time was more than five pounds. These were the officers then chosen for the ensuing year: Mr. John Woodcock, Anthony Sprague, Daniel Jenks, Jonathan Fuller, Thomas Tingley, selectmen; Anthony Sprague, town clerk; Israel Woodcock, town constable; Nicholas Ide and Joseph Cowel, surveyors; Henry Sweet, tithingman; Thomas Tingley and Samuel Titus, fence viewers; John Woodcock, Anthony Sprague and Daniel Jenks, assessors; John Lane, grandjuryman; Benjamin Force for the jury of trials in April at the next quarter sessions at Bristol.

In the series of these first town meetings, measures that were of lasting import to a recently settled community were consummated, such as the following: On March 22, 1696-7, all the inhabitants and town dwellers were given a right to vote at town meeting; July 12, 1697, the town pound was established "upon a piece of undivided land between the properties of Daniel Shepperson and James Jillson near the Bay Road."

On July 1 of the same year, the town passed orders against the harboring by townsmen of disorderly strangers and foreigners, or armed and uncivil Indians. Attleboro must have been especially afflicted in regard to such trespassers, as we can point to no similar town order in the Old Colony. Daniel Shepperson, at the meeting of March 4, 1699 or 1700, not only gave a piece of ground for the pound proposed a few years previously, but his house was appointed to be the "certain known place for town meetings." The town green, or training place, is rst mentioned at town meeting of March 25, 1701, to be "on the south side of David Freeman's house, between the two ways, namely the Bay Road, and the road that leadeth to Nicholas Ide's house." At this meeting, also a set time was appointed for election day for choosing town officers, namely the last Tuesday in March. A town meeting of direct interest to the present generation was that of February 9, 1702-3, when Ensign Nicholas Ide and Anthony Sprague, with the selectmen, were appointed a committee to seek an agreement concerning the lines and bounds between Attleboro, Dorchester and Wrentham. The town's poor are first mentioned in the entry of October 5, 1714, and the first rendered accounts for the care of the poor were dated October Se, 1722.

The town was divided into quarters December 30, 1718, and a little later the highways were laid out. An endeavor was made in 1751 to keep a record of births: and in the following year the town was divided into twelve parts; in 1761, £50 was appropriated for schools and £50 for the poor; September 12, 1768, it was voted to build a house in which to keep the town's stock of ammunition, Jacob Newell, who gave the land for the purpose, being town treasurer. The building was used as a powder house in 1776 and 1812.

Such was the typical tenor of the town meetings at this early period, and of this sort were the processes accompanying the founding of the township. Comparatively speaking, it was not by any means small town business that called town officers and purchase proprietors to their meetings; for they were then considering in all their proposals and orders, that appear of little weight to us, the one project of furnishing a new and useful town to the increasing communities of the Old Colony.